I have been kept busy recently.
-On May 2, I led a time of prayer here at Countryside on the National Day of Prayer.
-Yesterday I led this month’s Vesper service.
-Together with the organization that is updating our website – gettinggodsmessage.org – Dick Lee, Andre Bernier and I have been participating in the process. You might want to check out the new look! You probably know, that with me participating in anything to do with computers could lead to problems. So please pray that God would help us see it through to completion.
-I recently got word that one of the Networks that carries my program has added a new station in Palm Springs, CA.
Now to continue the Serendipitous Encounter I shared last month:
When the summer mission trip in Churchill, Canada ended, I took the long train ride back to Moody. I was looking forward to seeing Mur, continue our relationship, and hopefully see it grow, in person. There were bumps on the road that year, somewhat due to our being in two different schools. During the week we talked on the phone a few times and on weekends we would get together for church and often go to the Pacific Garden Mission on skid row, where I spoke in a service for the guys who stayed at the mission overnight, as well as others who would come in after a cold night on the street to get warm and get some breakfast. After those services we would interact with sailors who would come off the street to the caffe at the mission for a cup of coffee and a muffin. This often resulted in praying with one or more of them.
By the end of winter, we were talking seriously about our relationship. Mur prepared a list of about 20 reasons to say “No!” if I unexpectedly popped the question. In one conversation I told her that I had been giving $50 a month to underwrite a radio program into Russia. I suggested that I could stop that and be able to save for an engagement ring over a few months OR forgo getting an engagement ring and continue supporting the radio outreach. Now you know why she had come up with the list in her pocket!!
Surprisingly, when I did pop the question, she didn’t take out her list, nor did she opt for getting the ring. She was willing to say “YES!” But then she had to go back to her girlfriends in her dorm and tell them, without a ring on her finger. (About a year after our marriage some of them called and asked her, “What’s he like now??” These were the girls in my last Update, who joined Mur in praying that I would be her partner in the wedding where we first met).
Oh, by the way, there is another serendipitous encounter related to all this.
About 35 years after we got married, we were at a National Religious Broadcasters convention luncheon with 5000 in attendance. We sat at a table where two couples were seated. Mur was hoping that another couple would sit next to her, so she had someone to talk to, but soon four men came and sat beside her. At first, they were preoccupied in conversation. After we started eating, I noticed and recognized the nametag of the big, burly man sitting next to Mur. I said, “Alex Leonovich. Did you by any chance have a radio program years ago that was broadcast into Russia?” “Yes,” he replied. I continued, “When a student at Moody Bible Institute I supported your program once a month for $50.” His eyes lit up. Then I shared how, when we got engaged, we agreed to forfeit having an engagement ring so we could continue to support the program.
He jumped up and got behind Mur’s chair and gave her a big hug! Mur quickly, humbly acknowledged, “I won’t get any jewels in my crown. I had a hard time agreeing in my heart.” Alex again got up, and with a big smile hugged her again and said enthusiastically, “You will have many jewels. There are hundreds of churches all over Russia because of that program!”
Incidentally, one of the other three men, was introduced at the luncheon as a special guest. Immediately a light beam focused on our table. He was the press secretary for the Russian president, Yeltsin. After the luncheon I talked to one of the other men, who was a publisher. We collaborated over the next year to produce in Russian 40,000 copies of my book, A Call to Responsible Freedom. They were distributed throughout the former Soviet countries in schools, hospitals, libraries, the military, and pastors. Isn’t God amazing! I’m looking forward to seeing the jewels in Mur’s crown.